TA is Here!!!

Our Travel Approval arrived at our agency today, and they are requesting a consulate appointment of 7/21. If this is confirmed (hopefully by tomorrow), we should be leaving for China on Saturday, July 5 - that's right, this Saturday!!!

Flights at the last minute are very expensive, though I did find one today at about what we have been expecting to pay. First, pray that our CA is confirmed by tomorrow, and second, that this fare is still available tomorrow!!

If not, we will have to move our date back a week, and leave next weekend instead

Our sweet girl is waiting!!!

Only one more weekend until we go to China!!

We should be leaving for China on July 8, returning home on July 25 with our precious second daughter, Allie Faith. In the meantime, we are staying really busy!! Friday night, dear friends Russ and Deb invited all the local families who are currently waiting on their children from China. We had a pot-luck, and all the kids played and had a great time!!!

Saturday, we worked on projects at home inlcuding painting, cleaning, cleaning out closets and drawers (YUCK!!) Fun stuff!! Sunday, we had Sunday School, then had the one year olds in nursery for second service.

I have two slide shows today: The first, from Friday night, the second, just some pics of Emma playing...

TA!! TA!! TA!!

We received word today that our TA was on it's way, and hopefully, will be at our agency tomorrow, with a consulate appointment by Monday. They are asking for a CA of 7/21, which would mean we would be leaving for China a week from Monday!!! Sweet Allie, here we come!!

Still waiting on our TA for Allie

But we are staying busy!! This weekend, we had a yard sale on Saturday, had a Sunday School fellowship/birthday party Saturday evening, Church and Sunday School Sunday, worked around the house for the afternoon trying to get things cleaned up and cleaned out before our trip.

We are praying that our TA comes tomorrow, and that we will be leaving for China sometime the following week. I have the girls stuff packed, the suitcase packed with things to take to the orphanage, and my clothes together. Bobby & Josh better get with it!!

Enjoy some pics of Emma over the weekend - she is very excited to be close to bringing her sister home - every day now, she says, "Ready to go to China to get Sissie Allie?" She kisses and hugs her picture every day too!! We can't wait to have our two girls together!!

Pleae pray for Allie to adjust well to us, and to let us comfort her as she will surely grieve the loss of her foster family.

Time is flying by!!

We had another busy weekend! Friday night, our nephew graduated from high school, so we all went up to Dublin for the ceremony. Saturday, Emma & I had haircuts, then took one of our cocker spaniel puppies for a check-up, then Bobby's office had their office cook-out. Whew!!! busy day!! We also went shopping and finished buying the gifts for the orphanage, the nannies, and the officials in China.

On Saturday, Emma received a gift from her foster mother in China - a lovely sweater I am sure she made, and a jade necklace. We will send a "thank you" and pics of her opening it to her foster mom this week.

We are praying for our TA to come this week, so we can quickly be on our way to our sweet Allie - we are also hoping for an update on her this week!!

Pics are from Friday night - before graduation, Saturday, and a few from Sunday.

The pool

We bought a blowup pool for the girls, and Bobby and I blew it up and filled it Thursday evening. We also got them hot pink beach chairs with umbrellas. Emma liked her chair, and sat in it and supervised while we worked on the pool. She really wanted to get in Thursday night, but the water was just too cold. We promised her we would get in on Friday afternoon, though, and she had a great time!! Enjoy the pics. The last one is from church Sunday morning.

LOA on it's way!!

We received an email from our agency with the DHL tracking number for our LOAs return trip to China!! They estimate travel the first or second week of July, possibly the end of the last week of June, IF our TA comes by June 20.

Allie, we'll be there soon!!

June 1 is Child Day in China

A couple days ago, I received the following in an email from Emma's foster mother in China, Jing Yan:

May 28, 2008
Hi
Greeting to all of you! Children Day is coming (in China it is June 1st) , I express good wishes to you (my little baby girl) ahead of time. I hope you are happy and have a great time on your day. This is your first Children Day in America . I hope you will have a wonderful memory of this day in the future. We sent gifts to you for your Children day. They are a small sweater and a necklace with jade. I hope you like them.

Love you forever,
Chinese mother: Jing Yan


Emma had a wonderful foster mother who loved her very much, and we are so grateful for the care she gave to our precious little girl her first year and ahalf of life. Jing Yan was exposed to the gospel during her training to foster children - please pray that one day she will be saved.

I googled Child Day to learn a little about it, and here is what I found:

People's Republic of China
In the People's Republic of China, Children's Day is celebrated on June 1 and is formally known as "the June 1st International Children's Day" (Simplified Chinese: 六一国际儿童节). When the People's Republic of China was first established in 1949, the State Council (Cabinet) designated a half-day holiday for all primary schools on June 1st. This was later made into a full day's break in 1956 with The Announcement by the State Council to make June 1st Children's Day a One-Day Holiday[1]. Schools usually hold activities such as camping trips or free movies on Children's Day to allow students to have fun, and children of civil servants might also receive small gifts from the government. Entrance ceremonies of the Young Pioneers of China (similar to boy scouts in the West) are usually held on June 1st as well.However on 1/6/08 the day was made even more memorable,as many people remembered the childrens who died in the earthquake just a few weeks ago.

Please continue to pray for the families who lost children in the earthquake on May 12, and for those children orphaned.

Here is a slide show of our sweet Emma Grace SiQi on her first Children's Day in America. We hope her foster mother knows how special she is to us for the love and care she gave to our daughter, and how much we love this little girl!!